The power of team-based wellness challenges: 5 ways team challenges can boost your corporate wellness program

The power of team-based wellness challenges: 5 ways team challenges can boost your corporate wellness program

Implementing team-based wellness challenges into your corporate wellness mix may help your company reach its wellness goals faster. As more and more research emerges, we are better understanding the importance of team challenges in the workplace. No matter if you are thinking about a fitness/step, nutrition or weight management challenge, leveraging teams is a vital component to your program’s success.

Here are the top five reasons to implement a team-based challenge.

Teams allow for increased social well-being. According to one of the longest studies ever conducted – over 75 years – Robert Waldinger states in his TEDxBeaconStreet talk that, “People who are more socially connected are happier, healthier and live longer than others who are less connected.” It’s the quality of our relationships, not quality that really matters. Team challenges allow for increased connection to others in the workforce. We also know that employees who have at least one strong friendship at work are more likely to stay with a company, decreasing turnover.

Teams can help us foster purpose and meaning. Connecting to something bigger than ourselves is one of the ways we develop intrinsic motivation. When we are part of a team we are connecting to a bigger cause, as we create motivation and joy. In his best-selling book Drive, Dan Pink discusses autonomy, mastery and purpose. Read more in this blog post.

Positive influences are created through team challenges. Simply being around another person who is making positive changes, working toward a goal or engaging in healthy habits directly influences us, whether we realize it or not.

Team challenges increase our engagement and likelihood that we will reach a goal. Team competitions are more effective than individual challenges when it comes to reaching goals and staying the course.

Teams help to create norms and a culture of well-being. If you are seeking to create a lasting culture of well-being, you may want to start with your organization’s norms. Team-based challenges play an important role in your forming your company’s norms. If you are having a step competition for example, an 8-week challenge may allow employees to create habits such as walking at lunch, tracking their steps, participating in walking groups and cheering each other on over the course of the challenge. These habits can create new norms which can take root after a challenge.

Are you looking to spice up your team challenges in the workplace? AdvantageHealth can help you customize a fun, engaging and positive team-based challenge that fits your strategic wellness goals. See all incentive programs and challenges HERE.